


Strangest Minds

by TheCrazyFriend



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), The Darkest Minds (2018), The Darkest Minds Series - Alexandra Bracken
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2019-12-26 06:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18278117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrazyFriend/pseuds/TheCrazyFriend
Summary: Crossover between The Darkest Minds and Life is Strange set in the dystopian world of The Darkest Minds. Powers





	1. Max and Chloe

**Author's Note:**

> Just another random idea

She was the first. And consequently, her best friend was the second.

Maxine Caulfield and Chloe Price had been riding in the back of Chloe's father's car as he took them home from the Two Whales, a local diner that almost all of the tiny Oregon town called Arcadia Bay residents loved when the unthinkable had happened, William had been crossing an intersection when a semi ran a red light, the driver having fallen asleep at the wheel. The semi plowed straight into the side of the car, killing William instantly and crippling Chloe. Max, horrified and traumatized, lifted her hand and screamed at the sudden death of her second father figure. Max, then aged twelve felt an unimaginable terror at that time, while her mind was clouded by the horror she felt something in her hand which she instinctively grabbed on to and subconsciously pulled despite her conscious mind knowing there wasn't anything in her hand. Events came to a stop, the fireball building in the gas tank of the semi was frozen, the driver was suspended in midair as he flew out the windshield and the shards of glass that were scratching Max's face were suspended in space. Max, unsure of what was going on, looked around her and pouted in confusion. She scrambled to Chloe's side and touched her best friend’s cheek softly but she was already paralyzed and frozen in time. Looking around some more Max instinctively twisted her wrist sightly, the smell of blood still thick in her nostrils and her ears filled with the inhuman gargling that had come from Chloe. Slowly, oh so slowly the event began to replay in reverse. The semi driver flew back into his seat, the shattered glass from the windows and windshield reassembled itself, the fireball retreated back into the gas tank and Chloe gurgles played backward. Soon the entire car went backward, away from the intersection. 

Once the car was far enough back, Max loosened her hand, looking slightly panicked. “William!! Stop, I don't feel too good!!” she gasped. The semi plowed through the red as it had before but the car they were riding in wasn't there to get hit. _What the fuck?!_  
“Max, what's wrong?” William replied, a look of concern on his face  
“I-I don't know, I just feel sick” she lied quickly, without thinking. She had been traumatized by the event that had never happened yet knew she wouldn't ever be able to tell anyone about it  
“Let's get home then, Chloe can you grab the bucket out the trunk?” Chloe nodded, hopped out and grabbed the bucket. Chloe herself had an unreadable expression on her face, shock and some mild confusion  
“Ere's ya buck’t, Long Max Silver!!” the blonde exclaimed, handing Max a bucket and trying her hardest to keep her face neutral  
“Thanks, Cap'n” Max's face soon disappeared into the bucket with a splattering noise as she emptied her stomach of all the tasty Two Whales food  
“Ewww, gross!!” Chloe teased, holding back Max's hair out of the way of the spewing of stomach contents. “I think you ate too much, Maxi. You always were a lightweight when it comes to food”  
“Shut up, Chlo” the brunette mumbled, her face still in the bucket  
“Nah, I’d rather tease you to take your mind off what just happened” It was a Saturday and Max would probably spend the rest of the day tucked up in Chloe's bed so Chloe felt justified in teasing Max just a little since Max would probably have cost them a day’s worth of playing time  
“Oh thanks, Chlo” Max deadpanned  
“You’re welcome...!” Chloe chuckled some, she had taken Max's mind off of the sudden and urgent need to empty her stomach of its contents

Once the car pulled up outside 44 Cedar Avenue, Chloe helped Max into the house and up the stairs to Chloe's bedroom. “I have a bit of a headache” Chloe admitted. “What the fuck did you do, Max?!” Chloe's voice was quietly urgent  
_Oh no..._ “What do you mean, Chlo?” the brunette looked up at her thirteen-year-old friend in confusion and apprehension.  
“That semi... It would've crashed into us. I saw it last night, in my dream but you somehow stopped it”  
_Guess I have no choice... I should trust Chloe anyway_ “I'm gonna sound crazy, Chlo, but I think I can r-rewind time” Max stuttered, amazed by the fact that Chloe remembered how events had played out. She had watched enough TV shows and movies to know that time travel was supposed to wipe out memories of events for anyone not utilizing time travel  
“No shit, Sherlock, Max... And I guess I can see the future then” Chloe shrugged.  
“I think we should keep this quiet for now, I don't really fancy becoming a lab rat” Max whispered  
“Yer right, First Mate”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment or kudos if this is worth continuing


	2. Epidemic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thought I'd try something different in this chapter:)

My name is Maxine Caulfield and this is the story of how the world was destroyed around me.  
I was barely ten when I had an experience that changed my life forever, until then I had a somewhat average life, school, a cool best friend who loved what I loved as much as I did, a family, well in a way I had two families but everything good has to come to an end, right? I witnessed my best friend die in a car smash and... I changed it. I rewound time, changing fate itself and saving Chloe, she's my best friend and has been since before I went to school. Once we had gotten back to Chloe's place, 44 Cedar Avenue, we both went upstairs to her room. Since I was still a little shaky and weak from the experience, Chloe had to help me upstairs. I didn't think very much of my ability after that despite Chloe's desire to know more

*****

I mostly forgot about my abilities was until it started. The IAAN epidemic, that’s the Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration epidemic that spread across the entire United States and wiped out ninety-eight percent of all the children in the country and resulted in a country-wide quarantine to prevent the spread of the disease further than the United States. Nobody was allowed in or out of the country in an attempt to protect the rest of the population. I was thirteen when the first child in my class, Samantha Myers, died. Her fingers crackled with electricity for a split second and her eyes rolled back as she convulsed uncontrollably. Of course, several teachers ran in and ordered us all out of the room as more teachers ran backward and forward between the principal’s office, the classroom and the nurse's office. None of us really understood what was going on until we were told that Samantha had died, even then we didn't really understand. Sam was a gentle, shy little girl who wouldn’t hurt anyone and could often be seen hanging around with the rich brat Nathan Prescott, whom she liked for some inexplicable reason. The school didn't have any days off, it was decided that it was best to provide some normalcy under those extraordinary circumstances.

In the ensuing months after Sam’s death, more and more kids either dropped dead or disappeared, slowly, one at a time. Alyssa Anderson, Dana Ward, Taylor Christensen, Courtney Wagner, Juliet Watson, Evan Harris, Justin Williams, Trevor Thomas, Hayden Jones, Luke Parker and Stella Hill, all those Children died and they were just the ones in our class. Others disappeared, Victoria Chase, Kate Marsh, Stephanie Gingrich, Warren Graham, Rachel Amber, Brooke Scott and Irene and Lynn Marsh a few months later, Irene and Lynn were my friend Kate Marsh's younger sisters and consequently weren't in our class. In the end, it was just the three of us, Chloe and I, and a boy called Daniel DaCosta. We weren't originally in the same class but the school, Arcadia Bay Middle, started combining classes once they had realized that what was happening wasn't going to stop anytime soon. That day, Chloe gave him _the look_ while he was busy drawing, the same look she gave everyone before they dropped dead, a look of intense sadness and regret. Sadness that their young life was going to get cut short, and regret that she wasn't able to do anything to prevent it. Chloe and I had gotten into the habit a few days into the epidemic to talking about who was going to die or disappear that day, you see while I can make time rewind around me, Chloe can see into the future. I liked to be prepared for who was going to go, and Chloe wouldn't admit it but she _needed_ to talk about what was going to happen, it was a burden on her to know who was going to die every single day and she couldn't talk to anyone else about it since we didn't want to be admitted to a psych ward or some lab somewhere. Sure enough, Daniel tensed as if he was having a seizure, dropping dead moments later. The teacher looked over at both of us, sighed, shut the book he had been teaching from then left the classroom to get the clean-up crew. He returned and informed Chloe and me that our parents would be coming to pick us up. We were the only two kids in the entire school who hadn’t died nor shown any sign of developing one of the five known abilities; pyrokinesis, telepathy and mind control, electrokinesis, enhanced intelligence or telekinesis and as such the school was closing. There was simply no point keeping the entire school open for two kids. Chloe and I had seen a lot of our classmates die in that school so we weren't overly sad that we were getting a chance to start anew, away from the place where all our friends died

A few weeks before the last student at the school aside from us died, our parents had gotten talking, starting to make arrangements to move out of Arcadia Bay to Seattle. Unfortunately, we never had the chance...


	3. Last breakfast

“Beware the white coats” Chloe has rolled over and faced her childhood friend.  
“White coats, Chlo?” Max inquired gently  
“Mhm. Guys in white coats and breathing apparatus” Chloe confirmed with the look  
Immediately, Max tensed. To say she was stressed would be an understatement. “Chlo...” she whispered  
“We’re gonna be okay, Maxi” was all Chloe could whisper. They were lounging around the Chloe's room in the Price household. Relieved from needing to attend school every single day, the girls had spent most of their days adventuring around Arcadia Bay.  
“Are... Are you sure? I'm pretty sure we’re the only kids left in Arcadia”  
“Fuck that” Chloe replied  
“Chloe, language!!” Joyce snapped from the kitchen downstairs  
“Fuck that” Chloe whispered, “we are Chloe Price and Maxine Caulfield. We will be _forever_.” Max nodded at the other girl with relief, even after their discovery of having powers, of watching all their classmates die or disappear, they would still be together. Feeling a weight of worry off her shoulders, Max cuddled closer to her blonde friend and started to doze off once again

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!!” came the familiar cry. Max and Chloe stood, quickly washed up then ran downstairs. William and Joyce were already at the table and tucking into their eggs and bacon.  
“Good morning Butterfly, good morning, Shutterbug”  
Max and Chloe grinned at Ryan's nicknames for the pair, one time they had both caught him and William in a whispered conversation by the barbeque and seeing the pair together had always made William smile wider each time while Ryan took more pleasure in seeing them holding hands. “Good morning, Bloody Bill”  
“Hey, dad” Chloe replied quickly as she inhaled her breakfast of eggs and bacon. Max had a little more dignity while eating her pancakes but not that much  
“What you two up to today, going for another pirate adventure?” Joyce asked  
“Yea!! We were going to go to the lighthouse and play in the woods!!” Chloe replied enthusiastically  
“Just be careful up there, girls” William warned, “no more trying to descend the cliff in search of treasure?”  
Chloe groaned. She and Max had one day decided to clamber down the cliff to have a bit of an explore and had ended up getting stuck, eventually Joyce, William, Ryan and Vanessa went searching for them and called the rescue helicopter. Both girls had been in for hours of lecturing when they had gotten home. “That happened _once_ , dad!!” 

The girls had just started heading for the door when someone knocked on it. Max was nearer the door so she opened it, immediately noticing that there were four people in white coats stood on the doorstep.  
“Miss. Maxine Caulfield?”  
_Oh... Shit_


	4. Confrontation

“Miss. Maxine Caulfield?” the dark-skinned woman stood next to the dark-skinned man asked  
_Oh... Shit._  
“Miss, are you Miss. Maxine Caulfield?”  
“What is the meaning of this?” William Price hurried forward to intercept the four strangers before they could set foot in his house  
“Ah, you must be Mr. Price. A pleasure” the dark-skinned man held out his hand  
“Who are you?” William countered, ignoring the man’s outstretched hand  
“I'm Doctor Raymond Wells,” the man replied, “this is Professor Grant. May we speak to Maxine Caulfield please, alone?”  
“I don't know, you see she's not my daughter”  
“We know. We already have permission from Mr. and Mrs. Caulfield to speak to her” Grant replied, anticipating the answer and lying naturally. Neither Caulfield parent knew what was going on  
“Oh?”  
“It’s a matter of national security, sir. We'd also like to have a word with Miss Price, your daughter”  
“They're both teenagers, Dr. Wells. They've lost all their peers. I think they've been through enough.”  
“I'm afraid I must insist” Wells gestured and the two unnamed men pulled out tasers and leveled them at the protective father. “Excuse us, or we will be forced to enter by force”

Max had moved back away from the door upon the sight of the men arguing with William, she had moved back toward the back of the house and stood in the corner with her best friend, Chloe stood behind her. Max had shoved Chloe into the corner and hadn’t budged an inch when Chloe attempted to get around her to protect her younger best friend. “You're always my protector, Chlo. Now it's my turn” Max whispered, reaching up to touch her friend’s cheek reassuringly. “Play along” she breathed as there was a yelp from by the front door and seconds later, a thud.  
“Secure the house.” Wells gave orders to the other two men, one of whom stood by the door and the other crept upstairs, his taser held out in front of him. A second cry from upstairs made Chloe writhe some more, attempting to get Max's body off of her.  
“Don’t make a noise!” Max whispered urgently, somehow managing to get through to her distraught and furious best friend  
“They'll find us eventually” Chloe reasoned with an incredulous eyebrow raised  
“I know but trust me, it doesn't end well if you yell” Max replied with a whisper

What Chloe didn’t know was that she had already yelled out once upon hearing her mother get tased, barging past Max in her adrenaline state and seconds after doing so, the armed men had charged in and put two tasers into Chloe. She immediately dropped with a pained cry and Max screamed at the men to stop but they didn't, they continued to shock the teen until Grant and Wells joined them and ordered them to stop. By then, Chloe's young body’s heart rhythm had been disrupted. Max screamed at her friend to wake up while Grant performed CPR on the young blonde but soon enough she had stood with a shake of her head  
“I'm sorry, she's gone” Grant glared at both the guards who shifted nervously. “Matthews! Madsen! What do you have to say for yourselves!?” she bellowed, both scientists failing to notice that Max had lifted her arm, a furious expression on her face. Both Matthews and Madsen looked over at her in confusion at her pained and laborious breathing since she was having a lot of trouble preventing herself from jumping at the two men. The men lifted their tasers once again only to find that their hands that were holding the Tasers had aged impossibly, aged to the point where they couldn't move their fingers due to arthritis  
“What?” Matthews had mumbled  
“Holy shit!” Madsen exclaimed in shock, he hadn't expected such an outcome, they had both helped secure the vast majority of the kids in Arcadia Bay that survived the disease and neither of them had ever seen anything like that  
“You hurt _my_ Chloe!!” the distraught young teen cried, a look of utter loathing on her face while she glared at the two men who tased her best friend. Both men groaned as their bodies began to age at a vastly increased rate, their arms grew weaker and legs frailer. The first shock came as Madsen, someone who had been such a healthy middle-aged man, grunted and held his hand to his chest having had a heart attack. Matthews meanwhile had slumped to his knees, his skin turning yellow and jaundiced thanks to all the partying he did in his younger years and the alcohol he consumed to help him in his job of arresting children. Much to the shock and horror of the two scientists, both men had endured the changes wrought by thirty or forty-odd years of aging in a matter of a few seconds. “Fuck you. All of you!!” Max had hissed, focusing her ability once again to rewind back to before Chloe had screamed out.

A few moments later, Max stood in front of Chloe once again while Grant and Wells moved closer having not heard a furious Chloe that had resulted in the guards acting to protect their superiors. “Miss. Caulfield. Miss. Price” Wells stood a short distance from them. “My name is Dr. Wells but you can call me Ray. This is my colleague, Professor Grant”  
“Call me Michelle” Grant interjected  
“What do you want from us?” Chloe hissed, her teeth clamped together and her fists clenched, the blonde was _pissed_ and she wanted both the scientists to know that  
“We need you both to come with us” Wells began. “I'm sure you're aware of the IAAN epidemic and how it’s ravaging our children, killing thousands and leaving but a few sick in its wake. Well, you two are unique, you haven't been affected by IAAN. We need to find out why so we can cure the country’s children”  
“How are you so sure?” Chloe couldn't help but scoff at the stupidity she found surrounding her  
“I beg your pardon, Miss Price?” Wells' brows had furrowed in a look of confusion that, to Chloe, was almost comical  
“How can you be so sure we weren't affected by IAAN like all the other kids out there?” Max elaborated while Chloe struggled to hold in her laughter  
“Well you were both scanned, you show a distinct lack of the brain damage that's associated with the six types of outcome of the illness”  
“We were scanned?” Chloe scoffed again  
“Yes, we developed a method to scan children at a distance, in fact, we can use a satellite to do so”  
“You're talkin’ but all I'm hearing is _blah blah blah_ ”  
“The point is, Miss. Price,” Wells snapped, Max doubling over with laughter. “The point is that you and Maxine don't show any of the changes that lead to the abilities of enhanced cognition, telekinesis, electrokinesis, pyrokinesis and Consciousness Manipulation, nor they of the sixth outcome brain death, obviously.”  
“How do you know we're not _something new_? New somethings?” Max inquired through deep, gasping breaths  
“I beg your pardon?”  
“Chronokinesis and precognition” Chloe replied. “As my best friend here said, we’re something new”  
“That’s... _Impossible_ ” Grant looked awestruck at the blonde's words, she hadn't expected Chloe Price to be so intelligent. If it hadn’t been the scanners indicating that the girl seemed normal, she would've immediately made the judgment that the girl was a Green  
“Not really. Now Max, _do it_!!” Chloe gripped Max's hand before either of the guards with the scientists could react

 _Fuck yourselves, guys_. Max held out her hand and slammed the brakes on reality itself, freezing time around herself before she slammed it into reverse so forcefully that cracks in reality developed for a fraction of a second before events began to unwind around her


	5. Escape the Bay, part I

“Chlo, we gotta move!!” Max exclaimed once she had finished her rewind  
“Wow... Max, was that what I think it is?” Chloe looked over at her best friend, her eyes wider than Max ever thought possible and an awestruck tone in her voice  
“I rewound, yes” Max confirmed with a nod to emphasize  
“And I came along for the ride...” Chloe was barely blinking, afraid that if she blinked she would miss something just as incredible as what she had just witnessed, the laws of reality bending to her best friend’s will  
“We can discuss this later, Chlo, let's go!” Max whispered with a sense of urgency  
Chloe grabbed Max's hand and led her outside the back of the house, attempting to formulate a plan to get them out of the situation they found themselves in. “Grab the other side?” Chloe indicated the swing frame and started dragging it toward the back border of the yard. “Fuck... Max, come on!!”

Max leaped into action and ran forward to help though neither had dragged the frame very far before they heard the knock on the front door. “Damnit” Max hissed, she gave the frame one last yank then gave up, “We’re gonna have to jump”  
“Up you get, Max” Chloe held out her hands so that Max could use it as a boost. Max clambered up and onto the top of the frame where she could clamber onto the top of the fence. “Come on, Chloe!!”

Spurred into action by Max's fearful tone, Chloe shimmied herself up the frame as two people slammed open the sliding door. “Hey!! Stop!!” the dark-skinned man, Wells, bellowed at both girls, the other scientist, Grant, was right behind him  
“Fuck you!!” Chloe jumped for the fence at the same time Wells pulled out his taser. “Shit!” she screamed and crashed through the fence, the blonde's body convulsing from the sudden bolt of electricity surging through her body. “R-rewind!!” Chloe stuttered. Max picked up a nearby stone and chucked it at Wells, rewinding when she missed to try again. After a couple tries she managed to hit Wells in the face, forcing him to let go of the taser trigger for long enough for Max to grab Chloe and start rewinding. Chloe groaned and remained curled up in a fetal position while the fence repaired itself and the swings moved back to where they were originally.  
“Che, Che?” Max shook Chloe's shoulder slightly and removed the barbs from Chloe's back to a whimper from the other girl  
“I-I'm okay, Maxi” Chloe mumbled, every muscle in her body screaming from the abuse she had suffered but she slowly forced herself to uncurl despite her tense and sore muscles. Moments later they heard the sliding door open and, through a tiny peephole in the fence, Max could see Wells run out into the back yard, searching around frantically for both of the girls. 

“They're not here” Wells spoke into a radio neither girl knew he had but had Chloe been more with it rather than being led out up in pain, she would have been kicking herself cos of course they had radios. The blonde had curled up more and groaned while Max was shaking in fear from what was happening. Once again Chloe shoved aside the pain she was experiencing and pulled herself to her hands and knees and Max lifted her finger to her lips  
‘No shit’ Chloe mouthed back and rolled her eyes at the obviousness of Max's insistence  
“We gotta start searching the neighborhood” Grant suggested to Wells as she joined him in the back yard

“You gotta rewind again, Max” Chloe whispered, gripping Max's hand reassuringly and so that Max's power wouldn't affect her.  
Very reluctantly Max slowly extended her hand and applied the brakes to reality once again, forcing the world back up the river that was the flow of time. After a few moments she reached what felt like a natural barrier, the absolute maximum she could rewind safely without harming herself. “Dammit. Che, I can't go back any further” the short brunette mumbled wearily, she was beginning to feel the effects of the multiple rewinds and felt a pressure building up behind her eyes. She groaned, Chloe moving in quickly to catch her as she staggered sideways, a sharp pain digging in between her eyes like a nail hammered into her head  
“Max, you're _bleeding_!!” Chloe whisper-exclaimed as Max slowly lost consciousness. Max's vision darkened as the pain intensified while she slumped further into Chloe's comforting embrace. “Max? Max?! Max!!”


End file.
